Beverly Breton

about life, about stories, about love

Welcome to Smiles and Warm Hearts

So glad you’re visiting!

Perhaps I love romance because I grew up with older brothers and romance was the yin to balance all the yang. I’ve always adored love stories with happy-ever-after endings. My comic sense was definitely honed at home where it was an important currency.  Because I could make my brothers laugh with smart returns, silly puns, or double entendres, they accepted me in the boys pack, a big honor for the little sister!

I hope that’s what you’ll experience reading my mini-novellas–life laced with humor and love-inspired joy. Stories where people laugh, cry, hurt, and still fall in love to warm our hearts. The short stories listed below are currently not available for purchase. I’m working on a new longer story now–look to see me back “in print” in the future!

To read excerpts from the titles below, go to My Writing.

I’m Sure

perf5.000x8.000.inddDuring the day, Megan surrounds herself with water lilies and koi in the water ponds she designs. At night, memories of her lying ex-boyfriend remind her she can’t trust men.
Jason embraces his career as paramedic firefighter, even though ugly experience declares his profession a greedy mistress. During quiet nights at the station, he wonders if this bachelor existence is all he’ll ever know.
Then Jason meets Megan and sparks fly, chased by flashes of anger when Jason, battling a raging apartment fire, stands up Megan on their first date.
Is St. Valentine powerful enough to bring these two strong-willed people together?

I enjoyed this charming and sweet short novella. It made me laugh and it made me feel good. This is a great story for all of you who are looking for a quick and easy read.
Long and Short Reviews

Totally sweet, totally cute, this small town romance set in sunny Southern California was such a treat to read! Beverly Breton does a masterful job of creating unforgettable characters with just a few strokes of the pen.
Katie O’Sullivan, author of Say Yes

I’M SURE you should add this book to your reading list because I’M SURE you’re going to be glad you did…I sure was!
Peggy Jaeger, author of 3 Wishes

So this book was just wonderful.
April Hollingworth, author of Be Mine


Crazy H
appy Hearts

perf5.000x8.000.inddEighty-seven-year-old Tillie watches everyone’s comings and goings from her porch in her Jersey shore town. When her dear departed best friend’s never-married daughter Susan retires from Manhattan and returns to her childhood home across the street, Auntie T’s primed to do more than watch the former Miss Independence. Kenny doubts his mother’s claim that Susan needs a handyman, but jumps at the chance to see the girl next door, the one he never forgot. Still, he’d be a fool to risk his heart after she left without a backward glance. Susan is adrift in the town she left decades ago, a place of memories, and possibly regrets, until she reconnects with Kenny–widower, father, and so much more man than the high school boy she remembered. Does she dare to reveal a secret she, her mother, and Tillie have kept all these years?

Crazy Happy Hearts is a moving and charming story about a life-long love realized in middle age…Susan and Kenny have to bridge decades of absence to be together…You may tear up at the end, but they’ll be happy tears.
Denise Waldron, author of Seven Plates at the Table

May Day Magic

 MayDayMagic_w6042_300School nurse and single mother Diane Avery is too busy caring for her children and everyone else’s to accept she is due for loving care herself.  When her back seizes in front of hunky nursery owner Marc Stafford, Diane finds his offer to tend her ailment so amusing, she laughs away the suggestion…only to discover her back spasm has evaporated. But Marc is not to be dissuaded. And surprises keep coming for Diane and those close to her this May Day weekend as May baskets pop up on a number of door knobs. Before the sun sets, Diane will find the courage to uncover the most astonishing surprise of all.

I really like this short read and felt the author did a wonderful job telling Diane and Marc’s story. I loved that the characters were older people and that the situations they found themselves in were extremely relatable and believable. I loved Ms. Breton’s voice and found this to be one story that I’d highly recommend to other readers.
Night Owl Romance Rating: Five Stars, Night Owl Top Pick

The author’s written style is sweet, simple, and eloquently crafted. I absolutely adore how the author uses a simple but elegant custom to break the ice between the main characters and the happy every after ending makes this a book I would recommend to anyone looking for a short but sweet way to pass the time.
Mrs. Condit & Friends Reads Books


Under A Hal
loween Moon
UnderAHalloweenMoon_w5556_300Single mother Annika lives a safe existence centered around her five-year-old daughter, a little imp who is growing up faster than Annika wants to admit. Cameron is a widower working constant overtime to cover for a partner on leave, which leaves no time for his five-year-old daughter, let alone a social life. But then Cameron has no interest in the women focused on his long eyelashes, the fit of his jeans, and the size of his paycheck, and Annika has steered clear of the turmoil of relationships ever since her divorce. Are the two destined to remain single? Perhaps, until the Halloween moon when Cameron crosses paths with the bewitching single mother of his daughter’s new best friend, and a weekend of mischief, masquerade, and magic convinces Annika to take a chance on love.

This light-hearted, fast-paced book was a great way to spend an afternoon…a quick read perfect to lift your spirits and make readers happy…I will definitely look for this author in the future.”
The Romance Studio

This was a short sweet holiday story…a reassuring acknowledgement that magic can be found in the simplest things.
Night Owl Romance

Ms. Breton weaves a sweet holiday tale in her latest short story…If you are looking for a sweet story to read while waiting for those trick-or-treaters to come ringing your doorbell, you can’t go wrong with this one.”
Got Romance Reviews


Specs Appe
al
SpecsAppeal_w3378_300Living in one place your whole life has advantages, but everyone knowing your business isn’t one of them. Liz is no longer the shy tenth grader nicknamed Four Eyes. Her eleven-year relationship with her high school sweetheart is definitely over. She is never dating anyone from her small Indiana town again. Until she walks into the optician’s shop and discovers the new owner is the one boy from high school she never forgot. Liz is too raw to put her love life up for town fodder again, and too attracted not to… David Sherwood is not about to admit he’s spent years pining over someone else’s girlfriend. Can his silly jokes still make her laugh? Or is he too late for a chance with Liz Matthews…

Sometimes the past isn’t there to haunt you–it’s there to give you the chance you thought you never deserved…This is my first story by Ms. Breton, but it won’t be my last…If you want a sweet little romance that will have you begging for more, then you need to read Specs Appeal.
Long and Short Reviews

Small town life can be a royal pain. Especially when everyone knows everything about everyone in town…If you wanna know what goes down between cute Liz and studly David, and you know you do, then you just need to read Specs Appeal…I promise you won’t be sorry if you grab this one.
Seriously Reviewed

There is nothing like a sweet, funny romance to put a smile on your face; and Specs Appeal fits the bill. It is a warm and fuzzy kind of story with a large dose of humor…The characters are humorous, quirky, and down to earth…I enjoy Ms. Breton’s brand of humor and hope to read more by her in the very near future.
Bookwenches

Stars In Her Eyes
StarsInHerEyes_w2553_300
If Dream Man never comes knocking, at least she’ll own the door. That’s 28-year-old paralegal Karen’s plan, anyhow, to buy a home, and the reason she’s been working every weekend…until she bends to her best friend’s pressure to spend Saturday at the wave pool. Determined not to be derailed by another dead-end relationship, she avoids looking at the cute curly-haired guy–his friends call him Spence–carousing in the waves. But the tide turns as she’s caught unaware, a wave pool virgin on her first time in, and swept into a head-on collision with one of his friends. When she manages to stand and open her eyes, the world has disappeared. She sees only Spence surrounded by dancing stars. Has she been knocked silly, or is he gazing right back at her?

Hunks in trunks, warm sand, sunshine, wave pools and drama…Beverly Breton provides all this and more…In a few pages, Ms. Breton provides a well-rounded and charming tale full of main and secondary characters that are skillfully woven together in a series of events that changes Karen’s destiny…and does it with a wonderful touch of humor.
Long and Short Reviews

Stars In Her Eyes is the perfect thing for people on the go who need a little romance break.
The Romance Studio

Stars In Her Eyes is a sweet story about beginnings and fate taking over when we need that extra push in the right direction.
You Gotta Read Reviews, You Gotta Read/Highest Rating